NO TAKERS FOR MUCH-HYPED HIGHER EDUCATION CREDIT GUARANTEE SCHEME OF AAP GOVERNMENT: AJAY MAKEN.

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Shri Ajay Maken said the highly-hyped Higher Education Credit Guarantee Scheme (student loan scheme) of the Kejriwal Government has proved to be a big fraud played out on the students and parents of Delhi as even after eight months of the declaration of this loan scheme, not even a single student has availed of the scheme. Shri Maken also said that though the Congress party supports scrapping of the management quota in nursery admission, it should have been done  through the amendments made in the  Delhi Education Act, which the Delhi Assembly approved last month, and not through an Executive Order. He said the Kejriwal Government was also not serious about  deeply probing  the corruption charges in the DDCA when Shri Arun Jaitly was its president, which became evident from the fact that the Central Government and the Lt. Governor have refused to approve the enquiry committee constituted by the AAP Government to probe the irregularities in the  DDCA.

Addressing a press conference at the DPCC office, Rajiv Bhawan here today, Shri Ajay Maken said that while the Kejriwal Government in Delhi has spent crores of rupees on advertisements to credit themselves for the education loan scheme, in reality the loan scheme was fraught with unexplained traps  that no student has come forward to avail of it. He said moreover, under the new scheme, the Delhi Government has fixed a unique condition wherein parents of loan-seeking students will have to jointly apply for a loan being sought by their wards as “joint borrowers”. Thus the liability on the parents would be more now from a ‘guarantor’ earlier to a ‘joint borrower’. This has made the process of student’s loan extremely complex as now students will have to ask their parents to pledge personal documents and securities in order to avail simple educational loans. The press conference was also attended by chief spokesperson Smt. Sharmistha Mukherjee, Shri Chattar Singh, Shadow Committee members Smt. Ragini Nayak, Shri Aman Pawar, Shri Abhishek Dutt and chairman of DPCC RTI Cell Shri Vedpal,

Shri Ajay Maken said an RTI query (RTI replies are attached) about how many students have applied for the scheme under the concerned department of the Government of Delhi since the start of the scheme from 11-6-2015 till date, the reply given by the Directorate of Higher Education  of the Delhi Government  was “NIL”. He said to another question about the number of students who have received education loan under this scheme since its announcement on 11-6-2015 till date, the reply again was “NIL”. He said to a RTI query about the total budget for the said scheme, the reply was Rs 30 crore (financial year 2015-2016). Shri Maken said the Delhi Government has already spent crores of rupees just on the publicity of the said scheme. Such misleading propaganda and wastage of public resources in ads clearly reveals that ‘self-publicity’ sans actual work is the agenda of this Government, as sadly the scheme has not percolated down to the deserving students.

He said the Central Government, under the Congress-led UPA  Government, had distributed education loans worth Rs. 57700 crore up to December 31, 2013, which benefited over 25 lakh students without spending any money on its publicity. Shri Maken said the AAP Government’s Higher Education Credit Guarantee Scheme was just a hogwash aimed at befooling students of Delhi University.

Shri Maken also highlighted that the Rs 10 lakh scheme of GNCTD is also completely fraudulent for the reason that the scheme document itself says “(student) loans above Rs. 7.5 lakhs & upto Rs. 10 lakhs will be covered under the scheme (of Government of NCT of Delhi)”. Shamelessly taking credit of the said student loan scheme, the Kejriwal Government in its own policy document admits that loans up to 7.7 lakhs will be provided by the Central Government, Shri Maken added. He said for any course in any college in the Delhi Universiry and the IP University, the maximum fee would be Rs 4.5 lakh, and this loan is disbursed under the Central Government scheme. He said the students were not going to benefit in any manner from the education loan scheme of  the AAP Government. Shri Maken asked Shri Kejriwal to implement ‘instant subsidy’ if he was really keen to help out the students of Delhi University.

AAP GOVERNMENT DECISION TO SCRAP MANAGEMENT QUOTA IN NURSERY SCHOOL ADMISSION IS JUST AN EYE-WASH—AJAY MAKEN.

Shri Ajay Maken said though he supports the decision to scrap the management quota  in nursery school admissions, the Kejriwal Government’s decision regarding this was only to mislead the people of Delhi, as it was just a public posturing, for if the Kejriwal Government was indeed keen to end the management quota, it should have been incorporated  in the amendments to the Delhi Education Act recently passed by the Delhi Assembly, instead of issuing an executive order. Shri Maken quoted last year’s example when the Lt. Governor had issued such an order, against which the school management went to court, and got a favourable order. He said since the matter was sub-judice, how could the Kejriwal Government take an executive decision to scrap the management quota. Shri Maken said the Kejriwal Government had given a free hand to the schools in admissions when it ended the 62 points on the basis of which nursery admissions were decided, which clearly showed that the Kejriwal Government was only misleading and fooling the people in the matter.

KEJRIWAL SHOULD SUPPORT CONGRESS-MOOTED JPC  PROBE IN  THE DDCA SCAM—AJAY MAKEN.

Shri Ajay Maken said  in view of the Central Government and the Lt. Governor not approving the enquiry commission constituted by the AAP Government, under the Commission of Enquiry Act, to probe the financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association, the AAP should support the Congress-mooted JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee) probe or a court-monitored CBI inquiry. He said it was not under the purview of the Delhi Government to constitute such a probe panel without the approval of the Lt Governor or the Union Home Ministry. Shri Maken said the Kejriwal Government deliberately constituted the enquiry commission to probe the irregularities in the  DDCA just to lock horns with the Central Government. He said if a JPC probe is held in the DDCA’s financial irregularities when Shri Arun Jaitley was its president, then BJP MP Shri Kirti Azad should also be included in the JPC probe committee. Shri Maken said Kejriwal was just  doing political posturing on the DDCA issue which gives the impression that he was only trying to help out Shri Arun Jaitely, instead of going deep into the financial irregularities in the DDCA. Shri Maken said  the issue of the enquiry commission constituted by the Kejriwal Government to probe the CNG scam was now pending in the court.

LEADERS OF VARIOUS POLITICAL PARTIES FROM GOKULPUR ASSEMBLY CONSTITUENCY JOIN THE CONGRESS PARTY IN THE PRESENCE OF SHRI AJAY MAKEN.

Leaders of various political parties from the Gokulpur Assembly constituency today joined the Congress party in the presence of DPCC president Shri Ajay Maken. Shri Maken introduced these leaders at the media conference held at Rajiv Bhawan today. These leaders joined the Congress under the leadership of Municipal Councillor Kum. Rinku, who had contested the Assembly election from Gokulpur as a Congress candidate. The leaders who joined the Congress party included Ch. Khazan Singh, who had contested the MCD elections as a BJP candidate from Gokalpuri in 1997, Shri Ajay Sharma, senior member of the BJP from Johripur, Shri Ankur Malik, who contested the Assembly election and vice-president of Youth BJP, Shri Uttam Malik, Secretary of Youth BJP, Shri Dewanshu Malik, general secretary of CYSS, AAP, Shri Deepak Panchal, social worker—CYSS—AAP and Shri Amti Solanki, social worker—CYSS—AAP.